How's is hang'n podna?

There are some authors that have one story to tell and repeat it endlessly, book after book. One of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke may be one of them, but I'll gladly pay full admission every time he wants to tell it.

I just finished "Last Car to Elysian Fields". Once more, Dave Robicheaux gets tangled up in an mess that reaches back through the years. Once more, a strange and powerful murderer flits in and out of the story. Once more a rich and influential family may be deeply involved. Good sons gone bad, trying to be good. Wives and daughters caught in the corruption and the sins of the fathers. And once more, Clete Purcel is there to happily stir the mayhem.

Yah mon. Burke has got the gift, the skill. When I read his work I can smell it, feel it, taste it. I see every picture in full high definition. And the man knows we've been down this road before and uses it to add to the tension and anticipation. Bad things are going to happen. Rough, karmic justice will be handed out.

I have a shelf devoted to Mr. Burke's works - they are a marvel. It's been a while since I've been back through them - perhaps it's time to start over. But I'm not sure I can. Dave's been through some rough territory.

Ah. I don't know the world that Robicheaux does, don't want to be any closer than these books. I don't want to wrestle with his demons, carry his weight. But I tell you honestly, there are moments, points of time in which I do, for just a moment, wish I could unleash the chaos, go full tilt boogie, get the creeps in my sights in a free fire zone.

Admit it, so do you.

No? You're right, neither do I. I was just josh'n with ya.

"Don't be shooting at nothin' you cain't see the other side of, no."